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Jonathan Argaman
Faculty of Critical Writing, Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing
Sharon Barr
Adjunct Faculty, Department of City and Regional Planning
Ariel Ben-Amos
Adjunct Faculty, Department of City and Regional Planning
Policy and Partnerships Group Supervisor, Philadelphia Water Department
Founder, StreetBoxPHL
Ariel Ben-Amos, is a City Planner, Researcher, and Advocate with over two decades worth of experience in community and program development, as well infrastructure planning and implementation. A. Ben-Amos’s research focuses on the intersection of people, place, and infrastructure, and the political and organisational factors that mediate multi-modal investments and initiatives. Ariel’s advocacy focuses on empowering communities to steward public places in the ROW. His courses have explored Green Stormwater Infrastructure investments along legacy infrastructure, sustainability policy implementation processes, and how cities adapt to changing modal needs. Ben-Amos has contributed to numerous Design Manuals (NACTO Urban Street Design Guide, The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Practice, etc.) and has been published in Transportation Research Record, the State of Transportation Planning 2020, and the Philadelphia Independent.
Richard Berman
Lecturer, Urban Studies Program
Richard W. Berman is a registered architect, having received his professional degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. He began his architectural career working for a number of firms in and around the New York City area. Later, he received his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. A long-time lecturer at Penn, he is currently teaching a seminar called, People and Design. He has taught many courses over the years, generally focusing on Urban Design, Sustainability, and Usability.
He currently manages several multifamily buildings, in Philadelphia and New York City. As a hobby, he designs jewelry, which he sells on his own website, ArchitectsTouch.com. When time permits, he enjoys traveling with his family, exploring cities around the world.
Pablo Cerdera
Associate Director of Restorative Practices
Pablo Cerdera is a Restorative Justice (RJ) Practitioner and Educator and has been the Deputy Director of Restorative Practices at the University of Pennsylvania since February 2020. They live on the Indigenous territory known as Lenapehoking, the traditional homelands of the Lenape or Delaware People, in what is now called West Philadelphia. They began their professional work at the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis and has volunteered or worked as an RJ practitioner with Restorative Justice Community Action, the Conflict Resolution Center, the Good Shepherd Mediation Program, and Let’s Circle Up. Pablo has provided training and consulting services at Yale, Princeton, Drexel, Haverford, and numerous community organizations. They are a contributing author to "Applying Restorative Justice to Campus Sexual Misconduct" edited by Kaaren Williamsen and Erik Wessel. They are committed to sharing the restorative approach and firmly believes in the power to transform harm, promote meaningful accountability, and develop strong and healthy communities through this approach.
Michael Clapper
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Sean Closkey
President, ReBUILD Metro
Since founding ReBUILD Metro in 2006, Sean has spearheaded its evolution from a concept for community-driven neighborhood stabilization into one of the most impactful community change organizations in the region. Sean is a recognized community development expert with 30+ years of leadership experience, including prior roles as the Executive Director of the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency and the Executive Director of St. Joseph's Carpenter Society in Camden, NJ.
Donna Cooper
Executive Director, Children First
Former Secretary of Policy and Planning, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Former Deputy Mayor of Policy and Planning, City of Philadelphia
Donna was a senior fellow at the respected national think tank, the Center for American Progress, where she led the Center’s research on early childhood education, public infrastructure, and was a contributing researcher to the Center’s work to reduce the incidence of poverty. She served as the Secretary of Policy and Planning for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 2003–2010 where she was responsible for the state’s education, public supports, environmental and health care policy. While in that position, Donna led the development of the state’s Cover All Kids program which expanded access to affordable health care to nearly every child in the state. Donna also led the seven-year effort to boost funding for public education that increased K-12 funding by over $2 billion, and designed the state’s groundbreaking school funding formula which was enacted in 2008.
Donna was the founding Executive Director of Good Schools, a grassroots organizing campaign that successfully pushed public education to the top issue in the 2002 race for Governor. She also served as the City of Philadelphia’s Deputy Mayor of Policy and Planning from 1999–2002 where she designed and led the Greater Philadelphia Works Program, one of the nation’s largest and most successful efforts to help single mothers on welfare achieve self-sufficiency. Donna has a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, Fels Center of Government, and a master’s degree in Intercultural Management from the School for International Training.
Dennis Culhane
Professor
Dana and Andrew Stone Chair in Social Policy
Co-Principal Investigator, Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy
Dr. Culhane is a social science researcher with primary expertise in the area of homelessness and assisted housing policy. His work has contributed to efforts to address the housing and support needs of people experiencing housing emergencies and long-term homelessness.
Most recently, Culhane’s research has focused on using linked administrative data to gain a better understanding about the service utilization patterns of vulnerable populations, including youth exiting foster care and/or juvenile justice, as well as the individuals aged 55 and older who are experiencing homelessness.
Dr. Culhane’s research also focuses on homelessness among veterans. From July 2009 – June 2018 he served as Director of Research at the National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Dr. Culhane also co-directs Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP), an initiative that promotes the development, use, and innovation of integrated data systems by states and localities for policy analysis and systems reform.
Marisa Denker
Lecturer, SNF Paideia Program
Founder & CEO, Connect the Dots
Marisa is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where she originated the practice-based Participatory Cities course on public engagement in 2021, and continues to teach it each fall semester. She holds an MA in Design Practice from Dublin University (via her Fulbright fellowship) and a BA Urban Studies from University of Pennsylvania where she graduated as Phi Beta Kappa. Marisa Denker is the founder and CEO of Connect the Dots, a WBE/DBE firm focused on inclusive public and stakeholder engagement. Evolving from Marisa’s Fulbright project, Connect the Dots is based in Philadelphia and operates as a WBE/DBE on the east coast, where the firm is known for designing and delivering strategic, innovative and inclusive engagement processes to meet people where they are. Connect the Dots specializes in community-informed decision making in transportation, planning, placemaking economic development projects and more with clients including SEPTA, DVRPC, City of Philadelphia, Jersey City, NJTPA, and many more. Marisa brings deep expertise in inclusive public and stakeholder engagement, strategic communications, stakeholder management, and participatory research. She holds an MA in Design Practice from Dublin University (via her Fulbright fellowship) and a BA Urban Studies from University of Pennsylvania where she graduated as Phi Beta Kappa. Marisa is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where she has developed and teaches a course on public engagement entitled Participatory Cities.
Emily Dowdall
President of Policy Solutions, Reinvestment Fund
Emily Dowdall is President of Policy Solutions at Reinvestment Fund. She works with government, philanthropic, nonprofit, and other civic leaders across the country to support strategic decision-making to strengthen communities. Ms. Dowdall leads a team of skilled analysts in conducting research and building analytic tools that help stakeholders implement effective interventions and address entrenched challenges.
Ms. Dowdall’s expertise includes approaches to understanding and intervening in housing markets, strategies to stabilize households and neighborhoods, affordable housing needs, fair housing, early child education access, and program evaluation. She has studied housing markets in dozens of cities, led recent evaluations of Philadelphia’s eviction diversion and tenant Right to Counsel programs, written about investor activity in cities including Richmond, VA and Jacksonville, analyzed access to quality childcare in Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, and other regions, and developed an implementation plan for reducing the BIPOC homeownership gap in Philadelphia.
Ms. Dowdall joined Reinvestment Fund in 2016 as Chief of Policy Implementation and Development and then served as Policy Director and Managing Director before being named President of Policy Solutions. Prior to Reinvestment Fund, she led research efforts on critical issues facing Philadelphia and other cities for the Pew Charitable Trusts, producing major reports on gentrification, the role of public libraries in big cities, and property taxes. Ms. Dowdall holds a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also teaches, and a B.A. in Metropolitan Studies from New York University.
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Sylvia Garcia-Garcia
Lecturer, SNF Paideia Program
Collaborator & Principal, Connect the Dots
Sylvia García-García is an experienced college professor with teaching and professional expertise in Public Participation and Urban Studies. With a Master’s in Strategic Thinking from Tec de Monterrey and additional degrees in Political Sciences and Economics, Sylvia’s academic background is complemented by a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Leadership. A lecturer in the Urban Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania since 2023, her experience includes teaching at Tec de Monterrey’s School of Social Sciences and Government from 2016 to 2022, where she fostered critical thinking and intellectual engagement in DEI and Public Participation. Sylvia has engaged over 800 students through dynamic courses, workshops and seminars, advancing discussions on social and economic justice. Her passion for social inclusion is further evidenced by her role as Principal at Connect the Dots and active board memberships.
Eric Gershberg
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Greg Goldman
Lecturer, NPL Program, School of Social Policy & Practice
Greg H. Goldman is currently Senior Talent Solutions Partner for DiverseForce, Senior Consultant for Schultz and Williams, and Executive Coach with Legacy Land and Water Partners. In a career that has spanned 30+ years, he has served in a variety of executive positions in the nonprofit and corporate sectors, including Executive Director of Audubon PA, Executive Director of MANNA, CEO of Wireless Philadelphia/Digital Impact Group, VP of Development at the Philadelphia Zoo, and VP at Korman Communities. Greg has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania since 1997, affiliated with both the Urban Studies Program and School of Social Policy and Practice, offering courses in nonprofit and philanthropic strategy, execution and impact. He also served in the US Department of Commerce during the Obama Administration, and was Senior Program Officer at The Philadelphia Foundation. He is a member of the Conservation and Natural Resources Advisory Council for the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Governance Committee for the Nonprofit Leadership Program in Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice. He serves on the boards of The Union Benevolent Fund and The Community Grocer.
Greg received his BA from Northwestern University and a Master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago. He is a lifetime member of Eisenhower Fellowships, a selective global leadership network through which he and his family have travelled to Thailand and Taiwan.
Ira Goldstein
Senior Advisor of Policy Solutions, Reinvestment Fund
Ira Goldstein, Ph.D., is Senior Advisor in the Policy Solutions group at Reinvestment Fund; he served as President from 1999 through 2023. Goldstein has conducted spatial and statistical analyses in communities across the US. Those studies are used by government and philanthropy to craft policy and allocate public and philanthropic resources. His studies focus on mortgage lending disparities, reverse mortgages, mortgage foreclosures and predatory/abusive lending practices. His work supported civil rights and consumer protection cases. Goldstein created Reinvestment Fund’s proprietary Market Value Analysis (MVA), used to foster investment in communities across the US. He also created the Displacement Risk Ratio (DRR), a tool used to identify areas where residents are at risk of price-related displacement, and contributed to the crafting of Reinvestment Fund’s proprietary Limited Supermarket Access (LSA) and Childcare Gap measures.
Goldstein earned a BA, MA and PhD (Sociology) from Temple University. For almost 40 years, Goldstein has been a Lecturer for University of Pennsylvania’s (Penn) Urban Studies program. He teaches research methods, statistics, and housing policy. Goldstein is a Fellow with Penn’s Institute for Urban Research and sits on the Board of Children First PA. Before Reinvestment Fund, Goldstein was Mid-Atlantic Director of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD.
Ira Harkavy
Barbara and Edward Netter Director, Netter Center for Community Partnerships
Ira Harkavy is the Founder and Barbara and Edward Netter Director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 1992, Harkavy has helped to develop academically based community service courses as well as participatory action research projects with Penn's local community of West Philadelphia. Harkavy has written and lectured widely on university-community-school partnerships as well as on the democratic and civic missions of higher education. Among his 13 co-authored and co-edited books are: Knowledge for Social Change: Bacon, Dewey, and the Revolutionary Transformation of Research Universities in the Twenty First Century (2017), and Higher Education Leadership for Democracy, Sustainability and Social Justice (2023). Harkavy received his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in History from Penn, and, among other honors, is a recipient of Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit.
Nina Johnson
Associate Professor of Sociology, Swarthmore College
Nina Johnson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Program in Black Studies at Swarthmore College. Consistent with her training in Urban Studies, African-American Studies, and Culture and Communication, her research interests lie in the areas of inequality, politics, race, space, class, culture, stratification and mobility. She has recently published papers on political issues relative to black experiences of upward mobility and ruminations on a sociology of Black Liberation and contributed to a documentary (Turning A Corner, Beyondmedia Productions) on the legal, economic, and social barriers to exiting street level sex work. She has presented work on the representations of race, class and place in mid century black novels, including the work of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Zora Neale Hurston and a community video project on the impact of Islam on black religious, social and political life in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. Her book project revisits the classic works of W.E.B. Du Bois and E. Franklin Frazier and considers meaning making processes among the black elite, its relationship to the larger black population, and its role in any projects of collective racial advancement. Her current research is a multi-method study of the impacts of mass incarceration at the neighborhood level, which is complemented by her teaching in State Correctional Institutions in Pennsylvania. She is a member of both the Graterford and Chester Think Tanks, two communities of scholars who work on issues related to the criminal legal system and provide opportunities for engagement across the physical and social barriers that prisons create.
She wholeheartedly endorses every word of James Baldwin, but finds the following particularly prescient in shaping and informing her work, “The time has come, God knows, for us to examine ourselves, but we can only do this if we are willing to free ourselves of the myth of America and try to find out what is really happening here.”
Howard Kozloff
Founder & Principal, Agora Partners
CEO & Founder, Noblespace
Howard Kozloff is Founder and Principal of Agora Partners, a real estate advisory firm specializing in using placemaking to identify and create value-add opportunities in urban environments. Merging the often disparate skill sets of urban planning and real estate development, Agora Partners employs entrepreneurial planning techniques to improve and enhance public spaces, including publicly- and privately-owned parks, plazas, and other gathering places. Howard is also CEO & Founder of Noblespace, a Los Angeles-based real estate development platform focused on purpose-built life sciences facilities for companies emerging from academic and incubator networks. Howard holds a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies and Design of the Environment from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Urban Planning from Harvard University, and a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University. He has published and lectured widely in the areas of entrepreneurial development and urban planning.
John Kromer
Former Director of Housing, City of Philadelphia
John Kromer is a planning and development consultant, former director of housing for the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Edward G. Rendell, and a participant in local political campaigns and elections. He served as director of the Camden, NJ Redevelopment Agency during the initial year of a state-authorized municipal receivership, and he produced and helped implement an economic recovery plan for the city of Reading, PA, in compliance with the Pennsylvania Municipalities Financial Recovery Act.
John is the author of Fixing Broken Cities: The Implementation of Urban Development Strategies (2010; 2nd edition published in 2023) and Philadelphia Battlefields: Disruptive Campaigns and Upset Elections in a Changing City (2020), and he has written extensively on downtown and neighborhood development issues. As a participant in Fair Districts PA. a statewide, nonpartisan advocacy group, he organized a policy paper, Dysfunction by Design? Why Pennsylvania’s State Legislature is So Unproductive…and How We Can Fix It (2022).
Alicia Meyer
Curator of Research Services, Penn Libraries
Alicia supports students and scholars in their research, working closely with the Kislak curators, bibliographers, reading room staff, and faculty to teach and interpret special collections.
Before coming to Penn Libraries, Alicia was the Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Teaching Excellence at Penn, working with the Department of English and the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (GSWS). She has held fellowships at many research libraries and is currently a Research Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Alicia holds a Ph.D. in English with a Graduate Certificate in GSWS from Penn, and a BA and MA from the University of Nebraska. Her dissertation focuses on representations of marginalized women and the law in early modern England and its colonies, focusing on Bridewell Hospital. Her academic work centers the history of gender, feminism and queer theory, legal and political history, and early modern literature and material culture.
Ruth Moyer
Instructor, Urban Studies Fieldwork
Ruth Moyer (she/her/hers) uses data analysis and quantitative methods to research actionable issues concerning safety, health, and equity. She was the Project Director/Principal Investigator for a grant-funded University of Pennsylvania evaluation of the City of Philadelphia’s Group Violence Intervention. The quantitative evaluation findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Criminology.
Ruth has also researched issues such as the effect of methadone treatment facilities on crime and the effect of vacant land remediation on shootings. Her research has been published in journals that include the Journal of Quantitative Criminology and the American Journal of Public Health.
Ruth has more than seven years of teaching experience that includes data analysis in R and fieldwork. Ruth received her Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was an Urban Studies Dissertation Completion Fellow. Before her Ph.D. studies, she was an attorney in Philadelphia, serving as court-appointed counsel for indigent clients.
Michael Nairn
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B.A. University of California at Berkeley, Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Villanova University. Nairn has worked for the South Street Design Company in Philadelphia, as a lecturer for the Department of Architecture for Temple University and for the Department of Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning for the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of many organizations such as the American Society of Landscape Architects and the ASLA Open Committee for Historic Preservation.
Walter Palmer
Lecturer, MSW Program, School of Social Policy & Practice
Walter Palmer is the founder and director of The Palmer Foundation, and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Policy and Practice; where he has taught foundation courses in American Racism and Institutional Racism and Social Change since 1990. Professor Palmer has won the distinction of “teacher par excellence” throughout his many years of teaching.
He created the Black People’s University of Philadelphia (1954-1984) as an early prototype for preschool and adult independent and alternative education for contemporary America.
Walter Palmer is the founder and President of the Board of Trustees for The Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School, the first (national prototype) Pre school, middle and high school focus on leadership, social justice, and character development for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. Currently the school has a student population of over 1300, with a fifteen-million ($15,000,000) budget and in 2005 built a new (seven and half million dollars) elementary school facility and a five million dollar high school facility.
He is also the founder of The Black Men at Penn, School of Social Work, Inc. and founder of The Center on American Racism and Social Justice at the School of Social Policy and Practice, where he is the driving force behind the campaign to raise one million dollars ($1,000,000) to endow the Center.
During the era of the civil rights and Black Power movements, Walter Palmer, was recognized nationally as the premiere grassroots organizer for successfully organizing city, state, and national political campaigns, protest campaigns, and grassroots community projects, such as, the MOVE crisis, Model Cities, public health, community mental health, gang and anti-violence projects in Philadelphia and across the country.
In 2005 Walter Palmer worked on a health literacy project with the Philadelphia College of Physicians, the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Social Policy and Practice, the Philadelphia public schools and West Philadelphia residents. This project utilities innovative technology through an interactive website, Philly Health Info, designed by The Philadelphia College of Physicians, to provide residents health education.
Walter Palmer is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Cardio-Pulmonary Care. He was a Director of Cardio-Pulmonary Care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia from 1957 – 1967. He is a current Fellow in the Philadelphia College of Physicians. He received his Juris Doctorate degree from Howard University and law clerked for Community Legal Services upon graduation.
He received his bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Cheyney State University; and was certified in history and social studies. He also studied business administration at Temple University as well as radio, television production, and direction.
Walter Palmer has achieved a lifetime of awards and recognition and has amassed over 1,000 medals plaques, trophies, and certificates of acknowledgement and appreciation in community services, academics, athletics, health, law, social justice, and leadership.
In 2005 the Walter Palmer Leadership Charter School was named after him and in 2007 the Walter Palmer Library and Museum was dedicated to house a 5,000 book collection along with two hundred volumes of materials on leadership, self development and social justice.
Brian Peterson
Director, Makuu
Brian Peterson is the Director of Makuu, Penn’s Black Cultural Center. He is also a three-time Penn grad – first from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and later earning his master’s and a doctorate from the Graduate School of Education. In addition to teaching ‘Inequity and Empowerment: Urban Financial Literacy’ (URBS), he’s also co-taught ‘The History of People of African Descent at the University of Pennsylvania’ (AFRC) and has served as a pre-major advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the proud father of five children (Nia, Jalen, Nicholas, Myles, and Quincy), author of four books (including Higher Learning: Maximizing Your College Experience), and co-founder of two social impact initiatives – Ase Academy in 1999 and The Economic Justice Partnership in 2022 . You can learn more about Brian and his work in this 2020 Penn Today article, “The Connector”.
Ed Rendell
News Analyst, NBC
Special Counsel, Ballard Spahr LLP
Former Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Former Mayor, City of Philadelphia
After 34 years of public service, including 24 years as an elected official, Governor Rendell continues to pursue many of the same issues he was passionate about while serving. His commitment to making America a cleaner, more efficient place and to fostering investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure is as strong as it has ever been. Rendell has become a champion for progress in the area of alternative energy, and now serves as a consultant or board member for several green and alternative energy firms, including Own Energy, The Efficiency Network and VNG.co. He has also remained heavily involved in the campaign for government efficiency and strategic cost cutting through his work with entities such as Government Sourcing Solutions and Public Financial Management.
Perhaps no other issue has been and continues to be as important to Governor Rendell as America’s dire need to rebuild and reinvest in its infrastructure. As Governor, Rendell worked with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to create an organization called “Building America’s Future.” The organization focuses on the need for a more significant investment in American infrastructure projects to ensure that America maintains its place as a global economic power. Governor Rendell currently serves as Co-Chair of the organization, along with Mike Bloomberg and former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and travels throughout the country speaking about this issue.
In 2012, Governor Rendell penned his first book, A Nation of Wusses: How America’s Leaders Lost the Guts to Make Us Great. In A Nation of Wusses, Rendell chronicles his storied political career with his trademark candor while making a strong statement about the state of American leadership.
Rendell served two terms as Governor of Pennsylvania (2003-2011) and oversaw a budget of $28.3 billion as the chief executive of the nation’s 6th-most-populous state. As Governor, Rendell was committed to making government more responsible and responsive to the public’s needs, and he successfully cut wasteful spending and improved efficiency leading to savings of over $1 billion. His legislative agenda focused on commonsense political reform and putting progress ahead of partisanship. Through his unprecedented strategic investments, he energized Pennsylvania’s economy, revitalized communities, improved education, protected the environment, expanded access to health care to all children, and made affordable prescription drugs available to older Pennsylvanians.
During his two terms as Mayor of Philadelphia (1992-2000), Rendell eliminated a crippling deficit, balanced the City’s budget, and generated five consecutive budget surpluses. Philadelphia’s renaissance, which The New York Times called “the most stunning turnaround in recent urban history,” is largely attributed to his determination, inspiration, and energy.
Before serving as Mayor, Rendell was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia for two terms from 1978 through 1985. Rendell also served as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 Presidential election. He currently sits on several boards, supports multiple non-profit organizations and teaches government and politics courses at the University of Pennsylvania.
An Army veteran, he holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Villanova Law School.
Jacob Rosch
Senior Research Analyst, The Reinvestment Fund
Jacob Rosch is a research and consultant with experience in housing, education, and the intersection of public finance and community development. He currently works for Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based CDFI. At Reinvestment Fund, Mr. Rosch leads projects to help philanthropic, government, and private investors design strategies to support the expansion of high-quality child care, build healthy and thriving communities, and improve the lives of residents and families in disadvantaged communities. His most recent projects have investigated access to capital in the child care industry, strategies to expand utilization of federally supported food programs, the impact of property tax abatement programs, and the role of “middle market” neighborhoods in legacy cities. His work has been published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and the Chicago Policy Review. He holds a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Sociology and a Masters of Public Policy for the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
Casey Ross
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Dina Schlossberg
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Theresa Simmonds
Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator for Post-Secondary Success Programs, Netter Center for Community Partnerships
Theresa Simmonds, Ed.D., is the Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator for Post-Secondary Success Programs at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. She taught secondary social studies in West Philadelphia high schools for almost 12 years, then began working in college access and career readiness. A primary focus of her work at Netter is on developing pathways from local high schools to entry-level, benefits-eligible employment at Penn and Penn Medicine.
Elaine Simon
Former Urban Studies Director
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Elaine Simon is the former co-director of the Urban Studies program, where she served for 38 years. She is also an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Anthropology, and her primary research interest is in public education.
R. Tyson Smith
Research Analyst, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Lecturer in Urban Studies & Sociology
Tyson Smith is a trained sociologist and is a health research consultant. His research and teaching experience includes fields such as health, criminal justice, urban sociology, research methodology, violence, and veterans. He works with incarcerated members of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 466 and also helps facilitate restorative justice workshops on the inside of prison.
Shawnna Thomas-EL
Academic Coordinator, School of Dental Medicine
Adjunct Faculty, School of Education, Drexel University
Dr. Shawnna L. Thomas-EL is an Academic Coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and an Adjunct Faculty member at the Drexel University School of Education. Her teaching and research centers the voices and experiences of Black people, specifically within the context of gentrification and the disproportionate access to and equity in higher education. During her thirty-year career in the field of higher education, she has worked to recruit racially marginalized students into higher education, increase the numbers of underrepresented African American students in traditionally white spaces, and advocate for more welcoming access to higher education. Through her service on committees such as The Friends of the Black Bottom, The Uniquely You Summit, Inc., and research efforts that focus on issues of privilege, race, and racism, she endeavors to demonstrate the inextricable relationship between university expansion and the inequitable access to higher education by members of the Black community. Born in West Philadelphia and raised in the Mantua section of the city, she is a proud product of the Philadelphia School District, and has earned her undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degrees from Drexel University. When she isn’t advocating for Black students, she can be found on her mat offering yoga instruction to budding yogis.
Symme Trachtenberg
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Colin Weiding
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